[[folder: Plot]][[WMG: The curse froze everyones' ages, except for the Beast]] Assuming that the curse lasted for ten years, Chip certainly sounds a lot younger than 10. how was he born if his mother was a teapot?

[[WMG:[[UnreliableNarrator All is not as it seems in this story.]] The real story is as follows: Belle, victim to a vicious kidnapping, begins to lose her mind in captivity,]]believing the the dishes and furniture are speaking to her, when really they're not. She lost herself just enough at first to see The Beast, who in reality was an ugly, very hairy and unkept man, as some sort of inhuman Beast, perhaps as a coping mechanism for not wanting to see her cruel captor as simply a man without much of a conscience but a lower creature who was such. Ultimately, she succumbs to the Stockholm Syndrome and comes to believe that she is in love with her captor. In the end, she becomes completely psychotic, believing that she has changed him into a kind, handsome hero. Her delusions were induced [[BookWorm by the books she read]] and perhaps lack of sleep and other vital stuff.** Along the same lines, '''the entire story''' may a delusion caused by one of Belle's books. She's really living in a sanitarium, and imagines that a kindly old doctor is her father, an abusive orderly is Gaston and that her new therapist (who she doesn't know well enough to trust) is the Beast. After the therapist confronts the orderly and has him removed, she finally sees him as human and stops thinking that inanimate objects are talking to her.

[[WMG: During Belle's stay at the Beast's castle, "Beast" became a pet name she used.]]

After living in close quarters with the Beast and his servants for several months, she still only ever calls him "Beast." She should know his real name by then. She calls him Beast because she wants to and because he's okay with it.* Perhaps he simply did not want to be associated with his former name while stuck as beast, and simply neglected to tell her it? Heck, he could have told her to call him that.* [[RuleThirtyFour "Beast" is what she calls him in the bedroom.]]* At the beginning of the movie we see that the Beast has regressed to an animalistic state, walking on all fours and growling ferociously. Perhaps by that point the curse was [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody working its effect on his mind]] and he forgot his name in addition to how to behave like a human, and didn't remember it until he was returned to his proper form.* In his first real scene he refers to himself as The Beast. It could be a mocking self-awareness towards his appearance or that could just be what he sees himself. If you ask Belle at Disneyland she apparently says that he was a Beast so long that he forgot his real name. Glen Keane (Beast's animator) said that the longer he spent as a Beast the more animal he became and that after ten years he was more or less half and half. He couldn't remember how to read, using a spoon was beyond him, he was barely wearing any clothes. Keane also said that if Belle had never showed up (or came back) he would have eventually degenerated far enough that he would abandon clothes, forget how to speak and be consumed by his animalistic instincts and lose his human mind forever. This lends credibility to the "its been too long" idea. Maybe he hasn't forgotten and just doesn't identify with it anymore.* Another theory (one often used in fanfiction) is that the Beast is so ashamed of himself he doesn't feel as if he's ''worthy'' of a name anymore and insists that Belle calls him "Beast" because, in his mind, names are things for men.

[[WMG: The story Belle described is NOT "Beauty and the Beast"]]* If anything, its ''Disney/SleepingBeauty''. ** She doesn't once describe ANYTHING pertaining to "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast", original story or otherwise, except the magic spells and maybe the far-off places. She says:"Far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!" "Oh, isn't this amazing?/ It's my favorite part because you'll see/ here's where she meets prince charming/but she won't discover that it's him/'till chapter three."** Firstly, the story for ''Sleeping Beauty'' starts off "Once upon a time", whereas "Beauty and the Beast" doesn't. Second, there are no swords in the story at all, but Phillip takes down Maleficent with a one-sided sword-fight. The magic spell is not just the curse, but the fairy gifts. The prince in disguise and the lyrics relates to how Phillip looks rather un-princely in his riding costume, and no, se doesn't discover that he's a prince until much later (which is the third act).** The movie, when the lyrics are sung, show the almost exact scene where Aurora and Phillip meet and fall in love, about when Aurora stops avoiding him. Ergo, the story she describes is ''Sleeping Beauty''.* It's Aladdin, which happens to be the next released move in the Disney canon and already in the works at that point. ** Far-off places (the exotic East), daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise (poor boy who becomes a prince). * It's a Song of Ice and Fire! ** Westeros, lots of sword fights, lots of magic spells, and one, possibly two princes in disguise if you subscribe to a certain popular fan theory. * It's [[ThePrincessBride The Princess Bride]]!** Far-off places? Check. Magic Spells? Eh, a miracle can count! Swordfights? Double check.

[[WMG: The Beast's servants already started his [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turn]]; Belle only finished it.]]I got this from the above WMG about the alternate [[BrokenAesop Broken Aesops]]. The idea is that Beast was just as much of a jerk as Gaston, but was given a chance to change, while Gaston didn't. But Gaston did indeed have as many opportunities to change, and even knew Belle (the main catalyst for Beast) well before the Beast did.

The key difference was that Beast was horrified, not just by his own change, but by the curse being inflicted on his servants. As has been stated before, it seems pretty unfair that they were punished for his offence (especially the children), and I believe this made Beast realize what a truly selfish jerk he was. He saw how his action affected all those around him, and his bitterness and rage at the start of the film was from his guilt and self-hatred more than anything else. This also explains why the servants didn't seem all that upset about it, even after he let her go; they seemed more upset over the fact that he lost his one true love than about the curse, and even Cogworth seemed resigned to his fate. They never blamed him for what happened; they just wanted him to stop hating himself and find the love he needed to break the spell. As to how this ties to comparisons with Gaston: the servants did challenge Beast to change even before Belle arrived, and while they followed his orders in general, they were more than willing to break or ignore them when necessary (like helping Maurice). Gaston, on the other hand, has his near-sociopathic self-indulgence fueled by the enabling villagers. He is never questioned or challenged, except by Belle.

This is key: it shows that Belle BY HERSELF could not change Gaston nor Beast, and the best part is ''she knew this''. She knew that [[LoveRedeems her love alone]] wouldn't work; Gaston was a JerkAss through and through, and she was ready to write Beast off as one too. it was only after the servants told Beast what he did wrong and showed him the folly of his ways (something that would never happen to Gaston) did she see anything worth saving in him. It may seem like random rambling from me, but it seems to me that, at least in the Disney version, the servants' role in the Beast's redemption is severly overshadowed.* A sort of sub-WMG from [[{{@/Vermillion}} this same troper]]: the Beast/Gaston parallels can be seen as an allegory for substance abuse.* Another [[{{FridgeBrilliance}} fridgy]] guess: the reason Belle knew she couldn't change Gaston or Beast through ThePowerOfLove? She was [[{{GenreSavvy}} an avid reader and quite intelligent]], and realized the inherent flaws in such a fairy tale-like situation she found herself in.* Another thing you have to consider is that the Beast, unlike Gaston, feels guilt from his actions even if there is no one there to call him on them. This ties in neatly to his self-hatred, before his transformation he was much like Gaston in that he was selfish and self-absorbed. He couldn't really love anyone because he was completely in love with himself and it was only after learning to hate himself that he could begin the transition into being a better person. By the time the film takes place he's depressed, bitter, and very, ''very'' angry, but he's not really all that selfish because he absolutely '''''hates''''' himself and everything he's become. But while he is often rough with people he feels bad about it enough to try and make it right, case in point when he goes to save Belle after chasing her out of the West Wing. It's one of his first selfless acts and her gratitude is the thing that proves to himself that maybe he ''can'' be better.

[[WMG:The enchantress is just trying to help and is on the Beast's side.]] The enchantress seems very like the random magic users in a lot of fairy tales, she is good at heart but doesn’t really know enough about humans to make the punishment or reward fit the action. If the beast was in fact 11 when she cursed him, she was trying to stop him from growing up to be like Gaston (which, it has been pointed out, would be very bad for a person in power) since he doesn’t seem to have any parents and the only other people around do not have any authority. True her approach was overkill, but it does seem to have work.

Furthermore, the enchantress seems to have done everything she could to avoid the beast dying. She left him the magic mirror. Also that rose seems to have been a big draw for people who ought to know better, so it plays a big role in getting Belle to the castle and talking to the beast. You could even argue that the transformation sequence activating at the exact moment it did saved his life.

[[WMG: The Beast rejected the Enchantress because he was mourning his parent's death]]He was desperately sad that his parents were recently killed, either by an illness, in the French Revolution or by childbirth (Mother) and either of the two, or a hunting accident. He didn't want the old woman in his castle because he was still coping with grief, and didn't want anyone to know it (This is taking into account that the Beast was 10-11 when he was cursed). However, the Enchantress still cursed him and he... Well... reacted badly, to say the least. The combined stress of losing his parents, as well as thinking he doomed his servants and their families to the same curse, [[BreakTheCutie caused some serious mental trauma]], which in turn caused him to regress into a beast in body and mind, with the last ounce of his humanity being kept there by the castle servants, then Belle, then she came along.* Given that the Beast is a Prince, and a Prince is usually the son of a King and Queen, it's not outside the realm of possibility that his parents were King Louis and Marie Antoinette. thus him shunning the people of France for beheading his parents.

[[WMG: The curse would have ended regardless]]Magic is difficult. Permanent magic even more so. When the last petal fell from the rose the curse would have ended regardless, and the sorceress told the prince a lie to make a point. If everyone believes it, what does it matter if it is false? It still served its purpose.* On a related note, perhaps there wasn't actually any conditional elements in the curse at all, and even if Belle had confessed her love an hour in, the curse wouldn't have ended until he turned 21.* The sorceress was GenreSavvy and knew the curse-breaking event wouldn't occur until the very last moment anyway so she didn't feel that she needed to actually include the condition.

[[WMG: The Beast would have turned back when the last petal fell because of his servants even if Belle had never shown up.]]

He clearly loves at least some of his servants in a familial way, above and beyond what was expected of nobility at the time (who commonly treated their servants like furniture). What's to say that one of them, perhaps Mrs. Potts or Cogsworth in a parental way, or Lumiere in a [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friend]] way, didn't love him back?

[[WMG: The Enchantress is the Beast's Fairy Godmother]]The Enchantress plays a role similar to the Fairy Godmother, the Blue Fairy, and Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Unlike her fellow fairies, her charge is complete and total brat. Why give him a spanking and a time-out when she can curse him instead? The entire curse is a lesson designed to help the Beast become a better person. She honestly think she's doing this in his best interest... she just happens to not notice and/or not care that she is also inflicting terrifying body horror onto the innocent servants as well. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality She's a fairy, this is how they discipline children. Morality is relative.]] Maybe the reason why the Beast is such a brat is because he has a Fairy Godmother that pulls stunts like this.

[[WMG: The Beast killed his parents in a rage, and their bodies are in the West Wing.]]Well, we never do hear about them or see them...and the Beast would have been around 11 when he was transformed...the West Wing being forbidden couldn't just have been about him being embarrassed of the tantrum he threw when he destroyed the furniture. Some people say you can see some skeletons of the Beast's prey in there--who's to say his parents' remains aren't among them? THAT would be a legitimate reason to want to keep Belle out of there...

[[WMG: Gaston survived the fall but...]]he turned into a beast, when the Beast turned backed into a human, he turned into a beast who was uglier and more brutish than the Beast was. The villagers killed him on sight.* or they wanted to teach him a lesson so they sold him to a circus, where he was displayed in a sideshow and the barker would recount the story of what happened to him (think the beginning of [[Film/Freaks]])[[/folder]]

[[folder: Character]]

[[WMG: Chip, as a human, had a broken arm that didn't heal quite right]]Not enough to cause him major problems (he's a perfectly functional cup) but still not completely fixed.

[[WMG: Gaston's given name is '''Beau'''regard.]]* ''beau'' is the masculine word for beauty (Belle is the feminine tense).

[[WMG: Gaston is Gaston's last name.]]How else would you explain "Madame Gaston" when Belle is singing her reprise? or "Mr.Gaston" by the triplets in "Belle"?

[[WMG: Gaston spent his whole life trying to gain people's respect.]]He says that as a kid, he ate four dozen eggs every morning to help him get large. It's unlikely for someone at that age to be so obsessive about it, unless he had severe self-esteem issues. Also, he is good at everything he does exactly because he has been working to be the best at them. Now that he was at last being admired by everybody, Belle's continued rejection of him hit even harder.

[[WMG: Gaston was cursed too]]Specifically, to be [[EverythingButTheGirl adored by all but the woman he set his heart on]]. This lead to unrealistic expectations, and he felt compelled to [[{{Pride}} brag]] and [[LargeHam ham it up]] even while not necessarily liking himself much. (His outward ego is so over-the-top it's more like BadBadActing.) The icing on the cake is that the curse made him more freakishly ugly than the Beast, though only he has the power to see this about himself. Alternatively, the root cause may not have been a curse but [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor a wish]] granted by a JerkassGenie.

[[WMG: [=LeFou=] is Belle's {{Foil}}]]Just as Gaston is the Beast's EvilCounterpart, so to is [=LeFou=] Belle's SpearCounterpart. If you think about their roles in the relationship with Gaston and Beast, while Belle doesn't take any of the Beast's crap lying down, [=LeFou=] is utterly and totally dominated by Gaston, and barely even has a will of his own anymore. In the end, which pairing is better off for it? Also, what was the original meaning behind this story?

[[WMG: Belle was pregnant at the final scene of The Enchanted Christmas (that was after the original movie)]]Her body is proportioned much differently than how she is usually shown. Her body seems to have gained slightly more weight around her stomach while her face seems a lot thicker than usual, like she is in the early stages of pregnancy.

[[WMG: Belle is a furry]]Watch her face after the Beast transforms. Doesn't she look a little disappointed? Reportedly, in an early draft of the script, she ''did'' ask the now-human Beast if he'd ever considered growing a beard...

[[WMG: Gaston is not what he seems.]]The moral of the story is "Don't judge those who are different". Gaston and [=LeFou=] show shades of being intelligent and having some HoYay...what if this wasn't accidental? Gaston is actually intelligent and gay, but due to the time period, loathes himself for it and creates a persona of a skirt-chasing meathead in the hopes that nobody's the wiser. He knows he's "different" and instead of accepting himself, acts like a giant hypocrite, thus driving the moral home even harder.* If anything regardless this WMG he's Bi, but leans closer to men. As he shuns every woman in the entire village (Including those three beautiful blondes) except one. While he likes to spend his time in a bar full of rowdy hairy men who constantly praise him on his manliness. Hell, it's even implied that Gaston just wants Belle as a trophy, not as someone to actually embrace. His character trope page even implies he has no interest in sex itself, he just wants kids for the sake of having kids.

[[WMG: Gaston is ''exactly'' what he seems at first glance.]]He doesn't read the classics; he's never even ''seen'' a Shakespeare play, as low-brow as their audiences often were. He just has a knack for remembering things Belle and [=LeFou=] have said and occasionally using the terms and phrases correctly. The crowning achievement in his ingenuity over his entire life was the plan to put Maurice in an asylum. (What? It's not wild enough of a guess by now?)

[[WMG: The Beast is a bastard.]]No, not that sort of bastard, but it would explain why no-one noticed a prince going missing. He's the bastard son of a king or a prince by some noblewoman or other who was either too low-status to marry or else the mistress of an already-married king. As a result, the Beast was allowed to grow up in a small, unregarded royal property (the French nobility had dozens of them, who'd notice?) and was raised entirely by servants, also explaining his lack of parents at the beginning of the film.

[[WMG: Gaston is illiterate.]]In fact, most of the townspeople are. This is a small 18th century village in France, after all. When Gaston takes her book and holds it sideways, demanding to know how she could read it without pictures he is confused. Since he cannot read, he can only decipher stories by their illustrations.

[[WMG: Gaston and the Beast are the same person.]]

That person is the Doctor. Belle was going to be his companion after he regenerated from the Beast into Adam. He's also Gaston because that was him in the past under the effect of a Chameleon Arch. It's wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

[[WMG: Gaston is the Prince's brother]]Above there is a WMG stating that the Enchantress put the spell on the Prince so he wouldn't become like Gaston would become (Especially being one in power), which got me thinking. The fact the Castle and all of it's inhabitants seemed to have been erased from the memories of the townspeople. Perhaps Prince Gaston, his personal manservant, and The King and Queen were off traveling somewhere leaving their Prince in control for a few nights to teach him responsibility. When the Enchantress arrived and cast the spell, Gaston and their parents forgot they were royalty, while their clothes transformed into commoner clothing, and no-one else remembered or suspected anything. The King and Queen had been JerkAsses themselves corrupt with power and greed, so the Enchantress made them "Normal people" as their punishment, hoping the humility would fix them and Gaston (It didn't) Lefou may have even been Gaston's Manservant when he was a royal, and despite not remembering being so, he still subconsciously felt loyal to him.

[[WMG: Belle and Maurice are Jewish.]]This covers a couple of plot holes, such as why they seem to be amongst the few educated townsfolk, why they're so ostracized and why Belle's name is so on-the-nose. Her real name likely isn't Belle, but rather a Hebrew name that translates into "beauty", such as "Nechama", which wouldn't work in public in such an anti-Semitic climate.** It's quite possible, considering that France has a history as a pretty anti-Semitic country (no more so than some parts of Europe we could name, but history and historical novels do mention this, and modern-day France has experienced quite a spate of anti-Semitism as well). In addition, Belle is highly educated, which is unusual for both her time period and her gender. But throughout history, education has remained extremely important to the Jewish people. It's quite possible Maurice was a benevolent [[EducationMama Education Papa]], which is how Belle got her love of reading.

Additionally, if this theory were to be true, it would give the story a whole new layer. One could make the argument that parts of it serve as a CallBack to the story of Esther--a beautiful woman, yanked from her home (where she was raised by an older man who functioned as a single parent) to be the captive and queen of a hot-tempered ruler. In Belle's case, there is no Haman, per se, but Gaston functions somewhat in that role when he and the villagers try to kill the Beast/subdue and harm the servants. Regardless of the Haman issue, Belle still serves as an instrument of freedom just like Esther, and part of her reward is royal status.

[[WMG: The Entrantress returned, and, pleased with the Prince's developed character, but also noting Belle, gave him the ability to shapeshift back into the Beast.]]

[[WMG: Gaston secretly loves girls who read books.]]He'd never admit it, of course. The whole town thinks Belle is weird for reading, so it might dent his reputation. He could have had three more available girls who were just as beautiful (and probably wouldn't even mind sharing him), but no, he must have the one who reads.

[[WMG: Belle and Cinderella exist in the same universe, just different eras.]]

Belle references Prince Charming at least twice during the movie--in her IAmSong and its reprise, no less. It's quite possible that like most of us, she knows and loves the Cinderella story and probably considers it a favorite out of the many books she reads. The key is, she has a special relationship with the story because the real Cinderella and Prince Charming were rulers during Belle's childhood. Belle has grown up in a country and century reliant on the monarchy, and she probably idolized the benevolent king and servant-turned-queen. This possibility gets even more poignant when you remember Belle and her father are considered outcasts in their village, therefore lesser people.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Setting]]

[[WMG: Only the furniture with faces were once people]]There was a complaint in the JBM about the fact that Beast seems to have HUNDREDS of servants. However, only the characters like Lumière, Cogsworth and Mrs. Pots were people. The other things, such as the spoons and most of the cups, were always cups and spoons that the curse had animated. The footstool did not have a face and was not previously a person; it was a dog, which is not the same thing as a person. All moving pieces of furniture without faces were either animals or normal furniture before the curse, The enchanted silverware and the like could have very well been a provision by the enchantress for the type of scenario that happens in this film, to help the servants make a guest feel comfortable when they lack the dexterity and means to cater a guest by themselves.* Alternatively, people could conceivably have become more than one item. [[HiveQueen Lumiere may have been, or have been in control of]], ''[[HiveQueen all]]'' [[HiveQueen the candlesticks in the castle.]] [[HiveMind The silverware did synchronize awfully well...]]* This could explain also, how Chip was able to load, ignite and pilot Maurice's woodchopping machine without any hands.

[[WMG: The curse is more fair than it seems]]The Beast's servants, despite being innocent of wrongdoing themselves, were cursed along with him. We never saw what would have happened had the curse not been broken, but I theorize that everyone but the beast would have turned human regardless. They were cursed with him not as punishment, but to help him learn the lesson. (Of course there was a lesson, otherwise why would there be an escape clause?) If that last petal fell and the Beast became irredeemable, there would be no point in keeping everyone else in the castle. A few of them would try and stay, but with hope gone the Beast would become progressively more unstable and violent until it wasn't safe to stay.

[[WMG: The wolves that attack Belle and Maurice are part of the curse and protect the castle]]In RealLife, wolves almost never attack people and tend to ignore humans unless provoked for whatever reason. While there might be other reasons for why the wolves attacked people despite this going against their natural behavior, this guess suggests that they are supposed to be guardians of the path leading to the castle and part of the Enchantress' curse. They try to keep people from entering the castle first (Maurice's experience; he just got lucky when he survived) and also try to keep people from leaving (which is why Belle was attacked and possibly why the Beast never left the castle). You could say they were actually trying to attack Philippe, but wolves would be smart enough leave Belle alone while they gorged on the horse, yet they tried to attack her too. The wolves being guardians of sorts would also explain why no one else had succeeded in finding the castle and why no one ever left the castle itself ([[FridgeHorror that we know of, at least]]).* As for why they let Belle get to the castle: they could sense that she had the power to make the Beast love, so they let her pass and stayed out of the way during other occasions of people moving to/from the castle because they sensed the importance of the events unraveling before them (Belle coming back to save the Prince, the mob would have been too much to fight and were important to the curse's resolution as well, etc.)* In fact, in addition to protecting the castle, they could have also been there to arrange for the curse to break. After all, they drove Maurice to the castle, and the gate unlocked itself to let him in. Maurice getting there was the catalyst for the curse breaking. So in addition to keeping people in, they're also the agents of ContrivedCoincidence the curse used to resolve itself.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Meta]]

[[WMG: The ten years passing, and the rose wilting at Beast's 21st year may not be a continuity mistake]]If you think about it, it seems a mistake that they say 10 years have passed when the rose is supposed to wilt when Beast turns 21, making him 11 when he was cursed. But the curse supposedly paused the cursed people at the age it was set, so it seems impossible for both to be true and not have Belle be a pedophile, or Beast to be an abnormally developed 11 year old. But the Beast is the only ORGANIC cursed person, everyone else was turned into normally inanimate and unaging items. The Prince was turned into an organic and aging being, so perhaps he was 11 when cursed, and aged to 21, where everyone else didn't age because of the nature of what they were turned into?* Most seem to agree that the enchantres) is a JerkAss, then she might not have thought about preserving the Beast's youth. It could simply be negligent oversight, and that she just meant to curse them, and given no thought that the Beast might age, while the servants do not. Or, it was her being even more cruel by having the master eventually age and die and leave the servants with no one to serve, thus they become no more meaningful than the items they resemble? Utter cruelty, yes, but for someone who cursed a whole castle for one person's mistake, you can't really expect her to pull punches. First rule when dealing with the [[TheFairFolk Fairies]] is don't piss them off because they have a horrible sense of DisproportionateRetribution. Hell, the Beast may have kindly said that he couldn't let her stay and she could have cursed him for that. Or he could have been in a temper tantrum at the time and the Enchantress/Fae appeared then, to everyone's misfortune.* There's a shot near the beginning of the movie where the Beast rips up a portrait of himself as a young man. He is absolutely older than 11 in the painting, possibly as young as 15 or 16 but he may as well be in his early 20s. I imagine he must not have aged during the curse because he looks the same after transforming back to a human as he does in the painting, despite being 10 years older. Perhaps the comment by Lumiere that they have been "rusting for 10 years" was an approximation, or he was unable to keep track of how many years have passed.

[[WMG:UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution took place while the Prince was in beast form.]]The monarchy sent him to live in some remote castle because he was such a SpoiledBrat and they were tired of dealing with him. He escaped the Revolution because he was quietly assumed dead when he turned into a Beast. This is why the Beast doesn't seem to rule over anything even though he's a "prince" and there don't seem to be any other royals. Note that he's actually only referred to as a prince in the prologue, back when the monarchy was intact.

[[WMG: The Bimbettes (AKA Silly Girls) were originally meant to be Belle's sisters]]In many versions of the original fairy tale, Beauty has sisters (usually two, but three works fine), who are almost as beautiful as she is, but are spoiled, vapid, and flighty, in comparison to Beauty's kind heart and intelligence. The Bimbettes fit this description rather well- they do little of importance, are quite ditzy, and fawn over Gaston's good looks while Belle sees through him to the ugly interior.

At one point those three characters really were meant to be Belle's sisters- but this role of theirs was cut, to save time, because they weren't necessary, or both. They were still left in, but as mere background dressing, to establish that Gaston has fangirls.

[[WMG: The Beast is the personification of The FiveStagesOfGrief.]]* He seems to go through all five stages throughout the film (although the first two are only hinted at in the prologue)** Denial: I'm not a bad guy Ms. Enchantress, really!** Bargaining: Please don't do this, I'm sorry! I won't do it again!** Anger and Depression: He's stuck in these two for most of the movie, with the two of them tightly connected. He often swings wildly from bouts of explosive rage to crushing self-loathing and loneliness.** Acceptance: When he finally decides to change for Belle's sake and improve himself in an effort to be worthy of her love.** He slides back into depression after releasing Belle, almost to the point of suicide, but perks back up once she returns and even accepts his own death when stabbed by Gaston.

[[WMG: The Beast is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_II the son of Napoleon]] ]]Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte was a prince (technically he was styled King of Rome, but in practice he was a crown prince), and was known to have been quite bitter against his mother for abandoning Napoleon and having the children of another man while still married to him. What if he had ''not'' stayed in Reichstadt (with the duke Franz being only a lookalike) and, even before being 10, returned to France with a small following intent into restoring the Empire? He rejected the Enchantress because he was feeling particularly bitter over his inability to restore the Empire after Louis XVIII's death, and was about to reopen the gate and take her in (as he had realized what he had just done was criminal) when she blasted in and started cursing.Upon recovering his humanity he decided that staying with Belle was better than messing up with Louise Philippe's reign (at the time still beloved, and a good king anyway), and by the time his cousing Napoleon III took over he didn't want the throne anymore.* The Enchantress was actually Joséphine de Beauharnais' ghost: she and Napoleon's ghost had seen that he was becoming a bad person, and, after dream warnings failed to make him correct his actings, decided to give him a lesson and transformed him in a Beast. How? It's Napoleon, he had picked up a few tricks as a ghost. Why? Given what had happened with Napoleon François' mother, both Napoleon and Josephine weren't in the mood to leave anything to chance and went overboard...

[[WMG: The prince isn't the heir to the throne of France; he's a younger brother.]]Think about it for a second; how could the heir to the throne of France go missing overnight without throwing the country into disarray? The King and Queen of France would have given orders for the entire country to be searched, soldiers would have traveled to the Prince's castle and encountered the Beast, and if they hadn't killed him, they'd have at least spread the word that the prince had been killed by a monster. Yet, the inhabitants of the "small provincial town" nearby didn't seem to be aware that there was a monster in the big castle nearby...

The explanation? The prince isn't the Crown Prince, and nobody noticed his mysterious disappearance because he'd been sent away from court (due to his bad temper and behaviour) to live in a castle in the countryside with a small group of servants until his manner improved. His parents were waiting for the servants to send word of a change in his behaviour before they would visit him, and when the curse struck, the servants weren't able to send word, so prince's parents just assumed he was still as bad as ever and didn't bother to check up on him.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Crossovers]]

[[WMG:Gaston's last name is [[ThePhantomofTheOpera Leroux]].]]He survived the fall and coped with his humiliating defeat by writing a FixFic where the Beast is the StalkerWithACrush who resorts to the ScarpiaUltimatum and the handsome rival is a noble (albeit ineffectual) hero who gets the beautiful girl. As for how he knows how to write, he was downplaying his smarts in the movie. Either that or he had EasyAmnesia and someone convinced him to become a scholar and once he remembered his past, he started writing.* Alternatively, perhaps he was dictating?

[[WMG: The Enchantress is Nimue]]

Based on Disney's ''Disney/TheSwordintheStone,'' where Merlin has mobile furniture that can follow orders. Of course Nimue as his girlfriend (in [[Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing the novel]] that Disney's ''Sword and the Stone'' is adapted from) would have learned the spells to grant furniture mobility from Merlin and have perfected it by turning people into furniture which fixes the bugs (such as Merlin's sugar bowl giving him too much sugar) The enchantress is also a beautiful blonde woman, and Nimue is normally portrayed as blonde. The flaws in this WMG are that granting furniture mobility seems to be a standard trick of magic users in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. The good fairies in ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' as well as the sorcerer (and his apprentice) in the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' show ability in this sort of spell.

[[WMG: Gaston was the hunter who killed Bambi's mom]]Look on the wall during the Gaston song... In the original novel Bambi is a roe deer, not a white-tailed deer, which are found throughout Europe.A further note on the original novel, it was first published in Austria and it's a high possibility that's where the setting is. This theory is what the filmmakers were trying to imply when they made the film.

[[WMG: Belle is a Time Lord]]How else can you explain her cameo appearance in Hunchback of Notre Dame which is supposedly set 200 years before her birth?

[[WMG: The Beast is a Time Lord]]Just look at the transformation sequence at the end, the beams of light erupting from his fingertips and face, and also remember that he just got (apparently lethally) stabbed.He's not turning back into a human, the wound was deadly and he's regenerating!The fairy in the beginning did not turn him into a monster, she outright killed him, causing his regeneration into a less human-like appearance and changing his personality from {{jerkass}} to frowning recluse.* On a related note, the castle is his TARDIS. Notice how it changes dramatically after his transformation, up to and including the weather? This is also how Belle appears in Hunchback- she becomes his companion and gets her 'adventure in the great wide somewhere' after all.[[WMG Beast is actually He-Man

[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 Yes, that He-Man]]. One story or game has his name as Adam, he's a prince, and blonde. The enchantress was probably Evil-Lyn.

[[WMG: Belle's mother was a member of [[ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents V.F.D.]]]]

Belle calls the town "poor", yet it's not ''that'' badly off as it has a market for fine hats and a books (admittedly, only one quite small shop devoted to each). There are not one, but several people who are not only on the same economic level as Belle but ''better dressed''. Thus, we may assume that her mother was a noble member of V.F.D. in all senses of the word, and encouraged a reputation of harmless eccentricity by marrying an inventor instead of someone on her class level, which also allowed her to teach Belle to read. Thus, Belle was used to a higher standard of living and a more intellectual lifestyle. Due to her parent's marriage, she was also taught that money isn't everything, which easily translates to "looks aren't everything".

Let's assume that Belle's mother died when Belle was young, before she could receive higher-level training, the tattoo on her ankle, or actually knowing her mother (and/or father) was a member of V.F.D. As she is grown and apparently well adjusted, this may explain why she never speaks about her mother.

Maurice may or may not have been an associate himself. His wife's death is the reason they had to move. He may have been provided for by an in-law before falling on ''really'' hard times, shortly before the beginning of the film. He may have been told that the area was dangerous and fled from town to town, under the excuse that his inventions weren't catching on and they could no longer afford their old place. He may have simply moved around following the fairs. And if Maurice had been planning to go to Valencia's Fair Day...

As for Maurice never telling Belle about V.F.D. should he be a member of it, he may have wanted his daughter to live a safe, normal life--or he was just hopelessly busy making machines for V.F.D. and couldn't find the time to recruit Belle. His remark on Gaston may have been a test to see if she had her priorities straight and could tell noble people from ignoble people.

Belle was also taught to be a flaneur (or, flaneuse?), as she is ''very'' good at observing people. At the beginning of the movie, everyone still acts as if it Belle is the new girl--they know her name, yet aren't completely used to her oddness. But Belle herself is incredibly bored, knowing off the top of her head the entire current inventory of a bookstore which is small but full. The way she walks through town, avoiding a splash of dirty water, skipping through children's jumprope games, and using a wagon to her advantage, is not simple coincidence or luck. She settled into her own routine so quickly that she knows, and has gotten used to, ''everyone else's schedules'' as well.

This exchange cements Belle as a precise speaker, as V.F.D. members are known to be:

-->'''Gaston:''' A rustic hunting lodge, my latest kill roasting on the fire, and my little wife, massaging my feet, while the little ones play with the dogs. We'll have six or seven.\\'''Belle:''' [[AmbiguousSyntax Dogs?]]

But she also [[GrammarNazi uses more precise language]] than the bookshop owner himself. He states that she has "read" the book he gives her twice. It may be true that Belle has read it twice... but it doesn't mean that she has ''only'' read the book twice. From their dialogue, the book at the beginning of the film was not a book which she had read before, and she had borrowed it from him ''yesterday''. This means that she, like many avid readers, can read a good-sized book in one sitting if particularly absorbed with nothing else to do. From her knowledge of his inventory, it is also implied that the book she returned was the last book she hadn't read in the shop. And from ''that'' we may assume that a new shipment of books came shortly after she worked her way through the old inventory (some more than once), which took place within a few months at most. Thus, she asked him if he'd gotten anything new yesterday, because she was about to run out of things to read... ''again''.

Belle never confirms or denies the number of times she has actually read a book. All she says is that she has come to return the book she had "borrowed", not that she has come to return the book she had "read". She may very well borrow a book once or twice, but read it multiple times because she has nothing else to do, and she never corrects the owner because she is too polite and wants to remain on good terms. Also, due to her upbringing, Belle appears to have gotten lonely, but doesn't know how to connect with people who don't read as much as she does--if they even read at all. So in an attempt to look a little more normal, she glosses over her exact level of intelligence to put everyone at ease. So, the only thing we know for sure is that Belle has read the book ''at least'' twice.

Note: Belle's idea of downplaying her intelligence is "letting people assume that she only reads a book once when she borrows it". She still reads while she walks, talks about books and borrows them regularly, and helps her father with his inventions. However, this is likely because she acted the way she usually did on her first day in town. By the time Belle realized everyone was freaked out about her constant reading instead of staring at her because she was pretty, it was too late for her to pretend she didn't know how to read at all.

Back to V.F.D.: The bookshop owner may be the only member in town. Judging from his imprecise language and the dearth of V.F.D. members (since the shop is completely empty), he is a bit rusty. He gave Belle that book so quickly, not only because it is an old book which no one except her seems interested in, but because it has a coded message, which is one or both of the following:

-->1) It recruits Belle into V.F.D. As she is obviously smart, having memorized his current inventory, as well as reading the book ''[[GrammarNazi at least]]'' twice, the owner trusted that she would notice anything odd this time around.\\2) It informs her of her mother's real occupation. A member of V.F.D. who knew her family paid for it, put in the message, then told the owner to give it to Belle before going back into hiding (or being killed).

Belle never finished the book this time around, because the film happened and she got a library full of other books, which she likely began to read at once due to them being entirely new to her and she assumed there was nothing new about the book the owner gave her. Thus, she never found the message.

Lastly, her name is Belle. If her mother was a noblewoman, she would likely have been exposed to other languages and the common name has a double meaning. "Beautiful" in French, which has a homophone in English for "an object which makes a ringing sound". There is also a bell on the door of the bookshop. And which code taught to members of the V.F.D. uses a bell?

[[WMG: The plot is the focal point for a vast, inter-movie conspiracy]]It starts with Gaston. His dumb-brutishness [[ObfuscatingStupidity appears to be a facade.]] We know that the town doesn't treat intellectuals well. They ostracize Belle and attempt to get Maurice institutionalized. Gaston could simply be acting stupid defensively. When doing something that interests him (like talking about himself or preparing for a showdown) he becomes verbose and obviously well-read. He uses the word "expectorating" in context and quotes both Macbeth and the Bible in the Mob Song. When it would be more noticeable, though, he turns books sideways, smacks chessboards around, and decries the "dangerous pastime" of thinking. If nothing else, he knows psychology, easily [[XanatosSpeedChess speedchessing]] his way into getting what he wants. Due to the Bambi's mother theory above, we can open the possibility that there's more going on here, in regards to the rest of the Disney universe.

Now we move to the DisproportionateRetribution of the enchantress. The cruelty of cursing an entire castle for the rudeness and lack of hospitality of an 11-year-old prince feels almost contrived. Perhaps it was. But by whom? Well, we know that it's set in France in a time when royalty was a thing. If the timeline fits, one is tempted to suspect Merlin. After all, crippling the government of a neighboring country is a good way to ensure that your young king (Arthur) gets to grow into a responsible leader without the country going to hell by being invaded. But doing it himself would most certainly open the door to war anyway, so he would need an accomplice. Because of the Madame Mim fiasco, we know that sorcerous entities in this universe associate with one another. It's possible that he requested the help of a magic user with experience with curses and something to gain. Enter Maleficent, who has a castle of her own, so it stands to reason that she's interested in territory and rulership. She could be the enchantress. But there is a third suspect. The Queen from Snow White. She, like the Beast, has a magic mirror. A magic mirror that lends her the ability to see her competition when it comes to beauty. It's possible that she saw the girl NAMED "Beauty" and decided that she needed in on this plan, if only to exterminate her. Merlin and Maleficent would surely enter her into the pact, what with her mirror's omniscience.

Their plan would have gone off perfectly... [[SpannerInTheWorks if not for one thing.]] Gaston. Now, in Snow White, we see that the Queen's mirror doesn't like her much. It could be the case that, much like the wizards, the mirrors have a secret society of their own, complete with plans and counterplans. It could be that Beast's mirror and the Queen's mirror arranged for a third mirror to get into the hands of Gaston who, due to the precognitive abilities of the magic mirror, formulated a plan concerning the Beast and Belle. This is supported a bit by his predilection for reflective surfaces, and how comfortably he wields Belle's magic mirror. Now, if he presented himself as any kind of threat to the conspiracy, his ability to subvert it would be negated. So he pretends in front of everyone that he's all brawn and no brains, while simultaneously behaving in a self-centered and off-putting way towards Belle. He knows that if she and the Beast profess their love for one another in time, his country will be restored, and Belle saved from certain magical doom. In that context, everything he does makes much more sense. Angrily stating that Belle has feelings for the Beast? Planting the notion in her mind. Sending the mob? Getting Belle back to the castle before the rose wilts. Stabbing Beast in the back? A HeroicSacrifice, since Belle wouldn't have professed her love in time unless she thought it was the last thing she'd have to say to the Beast.

Gaston turns out to be the good guy all along, shaping his whole life around a vision granted him by the mirrors. All his villainy, under this theory, is attributed to an [[OmniscientMoralityLicense omniscience-guided plan that required it]]. Especially since everything did, indeed, turn out for the best.* This ... this may be the single greatest fan theory ever. Thank you, whoever wrote this.** That goes for me too.

[[WMG: The Enchantress is one of the Weird Sisters from {{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}]]Mainly because they have the same voice actress (at least in ''The Enchanted Christmas''), but it would explain why she was so heartless about transforming a kid and his servants into a beast and things.

[[WMG: The Enchantress is [[Manga/MahouSenseiNegima Evangeline]], and Belle became Chachazero after the Revolution]]That christmas Evangeline was passing by, and felt like not passing the night in the snow and asked hospitality masked as an old woman to avoid causing a lynch mob if there was someone who recognized her, but when the prince refused hospitality she stormed the castle, cursed him into a beast for that and the servants for not teaching him the [[SacredHospitality value of hospitability]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ate all the food]] (she was tired from all the transformation. She then went for her way until she felt the curse being lifted, and when Belle dared to face her after her appearance scared everyone she gave her a magical doll as reward for her courage.Comes UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, and the villagers team up with nearby villages, storm the castle and murder everyone, Belle last after watching helpless the deaths of her husband and child (or children?) and being gang-raped. Somewhere during her murder she snapped, and upon her death she possesses the magical doll and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge massacres everyone]], being stopped from destroying the villages and massacring their families only by Evangeline's arrival. Evangeline is spotted by mages and thought to be the killer and Belle-doll has exhausted the magic, so they decide to team up: Belle, now rechristened Chachazero, would be Evangeline's combat partner, and Evangeline would provide her with magic to stay alive, [[WickedCultured books]] and chances to [[PayEvilUntoEvil exact the blood of murderers, rapists and other violent criminals]].

[[WMG: The Enchantress is [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor The Enchantress.]]]]* Disney does own Marvel now. So why not?

[[WMG: The bald eagle head in Gaston's tavern is a griffon.]]I can't be the only one who notices how much it looks like [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Gilda]].* "No-one jumps realities like Gaston!"